duckydoty

Nice mess of fish!

ROLF is a fantastic place to stay and a great place to put in if your staying there. Mr. Brian Wise should be able to give you some good advice on this topic.

Looks like you had some fun there! Love camping out there the 1st week of April.

Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to hearing about this Nascar Fishing.

I usually pick up the walleye as bonus fish while fishing for crappie. Last year, the end of March, and 1st two weeks of April were just fantastic for the walleyes and crappie on the Sons Creek arm. Fishing the flats in 5-7 feet of water and shallow timber with swimming minnows and bobby garland grubs on 1/16th oz jig heads would normally produce a limit of walleyes and crappie.

15 crappie, none under 10 inches

The agents have been making their presence known for the last couple of weeks in that area. I thanked her for checking us today and being out there.

Your gonna have to deal with the crowds. Lots of spoonbill snaggers out and everyone else looking for whites and crappie. We fished from day break till about 1:30 pm to get our limits of crappie today, and there were boats everywhere. Caught lots of crappie first thing this morning on any color swimming minnow with 1/16th oz. heads. Let it sink and ever so slow real it in. Found most of them in one little hole in about 12 feet of water where the flats drop off to the creek channel and 3 submerged trees show on the graph. Everywhere else, we really had to work for them. Caught some in 5 FOW on flats and some in 22 FOW hugging brush piles. We did pick up 7 or 8 whites today also on the swimming minnows. Some of them were way up Flat Creek in 4-5 feet of water. Game Wardens are out. We got checked taking the boat out.....better stay legal! Had a great time fishing with fellow OAF'er Jason Essary today. Great guide that fella is!

Cool report.

We found some whites up in Flat Creek today. Some were way up there in 4-5 FOW. No pattern on them, just hit and miss all day. Water temp was 54 degrees.

We fished in Flat Creek yesterday. Put in around 4 pm and fished till dark with 3 people in the boat. 3 limits of crappie by dark. There were a bunch of boats out there near point 15 all the way up to the bridge. Not as many up past the bridge but still crowded. Any color swimming minnow with 16th oz head would catch a fish if reeled in super slow. No whites for us, but maybe today. Fixin to head that way.

I remember the last time you did that....LOL! You did not last too long. Duffy does it all the time. Saw him wet wading on a warm day in early Feb.

I've found that they usually make their big push up the James right around the 1st of April. Any rise in water around that time and they will make their run. The higher the water, the better the chances of them making it all the way up to the dam. I have caught them there before.

Jeff! Cool to finally meet you in person this weekend! Sure was a beautiful bow you caught. Give me a holler next time you come down this way.

If you do any fly fishing, your welcome to be a member of the Friday Night Strippers Club on Lake Taneycomo. Meetings are every Friday night after dark. Never heard anyone complain about not having a good time.

Jeff Duclos from the STL area landed this big boy today. 28.5 inches long with a 20 inch girth. Caught, measured, photographed and released. He was using a size 12 grey scud on 5x tippet. His largest rainbow ever landed and he has fished in Alaska on the Naknek River. Again, our beautiful Lake Taneycomo produces a catch of a lifetime! Congratulations Jeff!

Got the story and picture too. Beauty for sure!

Had a great time Mike. Glad you enjoyed it and looking forward to fishing with you again.

Last time I talked to you on the phone a couple of weeks ago, your limit was about 200 feet. Thats huge progress! That MC......she knows me pretty good

Pretty sure I'll show up. MC still does not know if she will have the day off yet.

Your ears must have been burning last night. We sure did miss you out there. Turns out, alot of them fellas last night know you and were asking about you. Even the kids from Reeds Spring. And Nope, I don't even have sense enough to get out of the rain.

The wife was working last night so I grabbed a sack of fast food, headed down to the pavilion just before dark and ate my dinner. I was waiting on a fellow forum member to show up and we were gonna do a little fishing. It was about 7:30 and I was not expecting him to show till about 8:30, so I killed the time by visiting with other people that were coming from and going fishing. I forgot how much I enjoyed doing that during the summers in the middle of the nights down there. 6 or 7 years ago, you could always count on someone being at the pavilion around midnight or 1 in the morning to have coffee and swap stories with. Saw Leonard down there with his kids. Chatted with him for a bit. Met a couple of go getters from the STL area that were down for the weekend. Got to chatting with them about Alaska. Turns out, 4 years ago, I had a couple of conversations with one of them over the phone. He was looking for advice on fishing an area in Alaska that I had guided at. Well Last night he was asking me what I thought about another area of Alaska he was wanting to go to. Turns out, I worked at that same very spot also, so I was able to give him alot of advice on what to use, where to look, and what to expect the time of year he wants to go there. Met a couple of younger gentlemen that are from the Reeds Spring area (locals) and were enjoying their first night of spring break. Another two fellas that had just pulled in the lot from Wild Wood, Missouri. Took them 3 1/2 hours to get there and boy were they excited to get on the water. Mike and his buddy James finally showed up around 8:30, and due to 12-15 other cars in the parking lot at the pavilion, we opted to head down to the old KOA area to start. Not another vehicle down there. It did not take long to start catching fish. I think Mike got one on his second cast, James on his 3rd or 4th cast and I, on the 2nd cast. We fished that area for an hour or so, picking up 10-15 fish each. Mike and I were fishing the white mink and just dead drifting it. We crossed over to the south side and headed up to fish across from and above the boat ramp. There were two other fellas fishing right at the ramp on the north side and we were just above them. All three of us picked up fish immediately and continued to catch fish for another hour or so. With the rain, I was getting a little cold and needed a warm up. We walked back to the cars and drove back to the pavillion parking lot so we could finish the night on the flats between outlets one and two. It was midnight and there was only one car left in the parking lot. I think I picked up 6 or 7 more fish in the next hour before calling it a night. Had a great time fishing, had great company, and enjoyed meeting and chatting with all the folks under the pavilion.

LOL! I find that funny! Sometimes I forget to go home when Im fishing.

You can boat past the narrows, but it is a very narrow channel right now. Not many browns being caught over 16 inches but you can get into some smaller than 16 due to the increased stockings over the past 2 years. Brown population took a big hit with the floods 3 years ago.

Good report Russ. Sounds like you had a good time. I was gonna fish Sunday, but the truck had different plans. Radiator decided not to hold antifreeze any more, so I spent the day replacing it. I can tell you, I would have rather been fishing.